Dr Karol Jakubowicz Chair Information for All Programme, UNESCO

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Dr Karol JakubowiczChairInformation for All
Programme, UNESCO

• THE ROLE AND FUTURE OF PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA, IN
  PARTICULAR WITH REGARD TO E-DEMOCRACY

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PACE ON PSM (2004)

• One of the key socio-political and media
  institutions developed by Western European
  democracies in the 20th century
• A vital element of democracy in Europe.
• But, it is under threat, challenged by political
  and economic interests, by increasing competition
  from commercial media, by media concentrations
  and by financial difficulties. It is also faced
  with the challenge of adapting to globalisation
  and the new technologies.
• The challenge today is how to preserve PSM in
  a form suited to the conditions of the 21st
  century
• How should PSM adjust to the conditions of the
  21st century?

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Shaping the Future of PSM
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Needed A Copernican revolution in thinking and
policy regarding some aspects of PSM

• Policy and regulation
• A technology-neutral definition of the remit
• Extension and adjustment of the remit
• Obligation for PSM organizations to operate on
  any platform suitable for their purpose
• Redefinition of some basic features of public
  service media
• Internal change
• Fundamental reform of PSM organizations and
  producton systems
• External change
• Engaging the young audience
• Cooperation with market players
• Partnership with civil society and new modes of
  social communication

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Technology

• Convinced therefore that the public service
  remit is all the more relevant in the information
  society and that it can be discharged by public
  service organisations via diverse platforms and
  an offer of various services, resulting in the
  emergence of public service media
  (Recommendation Rec(2007)3 of the CoE Committee
  of Ministers on the remit of public service media
  in the information society)
• PSM (PSBall relevant platformsWeb 2.0)
  represents the technology-neutral definition of
  the remit
• PSM should be legally supported and required to
  offer mass, specialized and Internet content
  (personalized public service) as the default
  and core content offer.
• Policy should support, also financially, PSM
  investments needed to extend the range of
  services.

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Four pillars PSM in action on all platforms
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Internal change

• Internal restructuring and reform
  fully-integrated multi-platform organisation,
  with digital infrastructure content is born
  digital and stays digital

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Traditional PSB structure
Radio
TELEVISION
TV
Internet
RADIO
Internet
Mobile TV
EBU, DSG, 2002
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New structure and production process
EBU, DSG, 2002
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Adjusting to social change No future for
traditional PSB

OFCOM, 2004
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Engaging the young audience

• Develop more participatory and interactive forms
  of programming, including social networking
• Find new ways to promote classical public service
  content, today avoided by the young audience
• Introduce more entertainment
• Introduce programme or Internet services for
  children and youth

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Resist neoliberal ideological pressure

• Market failure will grow tabloidization
  commercial media a threat to democracy (see PACE,
  Habermas)
• With rising competition, generalist, mass
  audience, free to air (but not only see Animal
  Planet) commercial channels will offer less,
  rather than more public service and domestic
  content (ITV, Five to give up PSB status after
  2014?)
• PSM is regaining monopoly on public service
  content and full-value free-to-air generalist
  programme services

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PACE Democratic malaise

• The increasing feeling of political discontent
  and disaffection among citizens a declining
  turnout at elections
• A growing disappointment or indifference towards
  politics, especially among the young generation
• Loss of confidence in democracy and a growing gap
  between political institutions and citizens
• The dysfunctioning of some political institutions
  in many countries political parties have partly
  lost their capacity to be a link between citizens
  and state representativeness of parliaments is
  all too often questionable basic principles of
  democracy such as separation of powers, political
  freedoms, transparency and accountability are
  widely perceived, and sometimes rightly so, as
  being insufficiently implemented or not
  implemented at all.
• Citizens' alienation from politics and growing
  distrust vis-a-vis their representatives are
  fostered by what citizens perceive as a cognitive
  distance from the elite. This has engendered
  feelings of powerlessness, needlessness, and even
  helplessness with regard to politics lack of
  transparency with regard to the political
  processes. (Trechsel, 2005 48).

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Three priorities

• Electoral processes enhancing turnout and
  inclusion
• Parties promoting fairer funding and internal
  democracy
• Citizen involvement supporting civic education
  and direct democracy (Lowndes, 2005) role for
  PSM

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E-democracy

• E-democracy is a means for disseminating more
  political information and for enhancing
  communication and participation, as well as
  hopefully in the long run for the transformation
  of the political debate and the political
  culture. Participants in the field of e-democracy
  include civil society (organized and non
  organized), the administration, politicians
  andto a lesser extentthe economy (cited after
  Coleman, Norris, 2005).

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Not a new model of democracy

• E-democracy is not about replacing representative
  with direct, ICT-mediated democracy rather,
  about the emergence of a hybrid form of
  direct-representative democracy facilitating
  public debate, the birth of new political
  movements, and citizen involvement in the work of
  institutions of democracy

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The traditional PSM service to democracy is no
longer enough

• In times of globalization and international
  integration
• Inform citizens of the work of international
  organizations
• Contribute to creating a public sphere and
  elements of a civil society at the regional,
  continental and global levels
• Serve as a watchdog of international and global
  organizations
• Develop social capital and a sense of community
  and co-responsibility for the nation-state at a
  time when cyberspace allows individuals to
  participate in virtual communities and become
  detached from their own societies and nations

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Old and new tasks of PSM in relation to political
citizenship and democracy in e-democracy
Adapted from Carpentier, 2007
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ICTs and PSM-Civil Society Partnership First
Steps
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Participation and Partnership

• We have to stop thinking of public broadcasting
  as a stand-alone organisation and see it as the
  principal node in an emerging network of public
  and civil initiatives that taken together,
  provide the basis for new shared cultural space,
  a digital commons, that can help forge new
  communal connections (Murdock, 2004)

James Yang
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Public Convergence
Public sector, artistic and edu-cational
institu-tions, libraries, NGOs, USG, citizen
journalists, etc.
PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA
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The Role of Public Service Media for Widening
Individual Participation in European Democracy
(Lowe, 2008)

• Information
• Facilitation
• Collaboration
• Democratisation
• Mobilisation

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Facilitation

• The election engine enables citizens to
  discover which candidates most closely represent
  their personal views and interests. Candidates
  fill out a questionnaire which users later fill
  out as well and then click on a dialogue button.
  The machine compares the users answers to each
  of the candidates standing for election and
  reveals the distance between the user and the
  candidates.
• The site offered by the Finnish PSM operator,
  YLE, for parliamentary elections is a good
  example of this type of Facilitation
  (www.yle.fi/vaalit/2007/vaalikone).

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Collaboration

• Social networking services offered by PSM
  companies that integrate broadcast and online
  services in connection with user-created content
  of thematic interest. They are of keen importance
  for constructing democratic discourse.

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Democratisation

• Why Democracy? is a collaborative production of
  public service broadcasters from across Europe
  and around the world. These include the BBC (UK),
  DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), ZDF (Germany), SBS
  (Australia), SABC (South Africa), ARTE (France)
  NHK (Japan), and many more.
• In October 2007, ten one-hour films that focus on
  contemporary democracy were broadcast in what is
  reportedly the world's largest ever factual media
  event.
• Each participating broadcaster will produce a
  locally-based season of film, radio, debate and
  discussion to tie in with the global broadcast of
  the Why Democracy? documentary films. This will
  result in 20 short films dealing with personal,
  political and rights issues around the theme
  'What does democracy mean to me?'

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Mobilisation

• The BBC's Action Network service provides advice
  and tools to people who want to run campaigns on
  (mostly) local concerns. Action Network producers
  leverage the BBC's television and radio networks
  to publicise the range of self-organising groups
  who are using its database to store documents and
  communicate via messages and email alerts.

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The Civic Potential of Video Games

• The participatory culture created by video games
  and other forms of digital media offers many
  opportunities for young people to engage in civic
  debates, to participate in community life, to
  become political leaderseven if sometimes only
  through the "second lives" offered by massively
  multiplayer games or online fan communities.
• This can serve their empowerment which comes from
  making meaningful decisions within a real civic
  context.. Young people can develop confidence in
  their own abilities to act as leaders, practice
  articulating their own point of view, debate
  issues, and help others in their own communities.
  This can help turn them into people who
  individually and collectively engage in
  democratic society in order identify and address
  issues of public concern through acts of
  voluntarism, organizational involvement, and
  electoral participation

When you think of the video games that sometimes
proliferate on PSM - you have to wonder what
purpose they really serve Neelie Kroes, EU
Kahne, Middaugh, Evans, 2008
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Evolution of PSB/PSM

• 1920-1930s State radio or paternalistic PSB
• 1960-1980s Democratic-emancipatory evolution of
  PSB closer ties with civil society
• 2010-2020s - PSM and the Public Partnership and
  Participation

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• Thank you.